Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-10-06
BOB BURDETTE ON THEFLAG

BOB BURDETTE ON THE FLAG
Why the Veterans Dislike the Combins.
tion of Cleveland and the Starr and
Stripes
[Burdette in Philadelphia Press1
1t seems to me that the hostility which
the old soldiers exhibit toward the COM
bination of President Cleveland and the
United States flag is easily explained. It
is simply an emation of the soldier spirit;
it is the soul of soldiers life and habit
obedience TO orders.
Along sometime ''endurin' the war"
the mob of camp followers aud specuIa-
tors who followed the Union army for
gain and plunder got to using the United
States flag as an advertisement. 1t fioated
over and in front of every shoddy store
in Cairo and Memphis, and painted across
the stars and stripes was the name of the
firm that was making s. on every bill of
fifty cents it sold. The flag was dishon-
ored by greedy robbers who loved the
soldier only for what they could make
out of him, and waved the flag over his
head while they went through his pockets.
| think it was Grant-a soldier naturally
thinks that every good thing that was
done during the war was done by Grant
possibly while he was commanding the
military division of the Mississippi at
any rate it was some Union general, who
issued an order forbidding this desecra-
tion of the flag. 1t was a symbol of
honor; the emblem of our noble and
glorious cause; every star was sacred to
the soldier; that banner was his hourly
inspiration; daily he braved death under
its folds and he prayed that it might be
his winding-sheet when he died. To
daub upon its azure field the fat face of
some civilian who never spoke warm
hearted word for the Union until he found
there was some profit to be made out of
its defenders; to scrawl across its silken
folds the name of some trader whose
greedy hand was plunged into the SOL
dier's pocket; to use the flag as an ad-
vertising sheet for pack of camp fol-
lowers, was a disgrace, an outrage, a
shameful dishonor. And soNthe general
commanding ordered that all such signs
should be taken down by the provost
guard and that no man should ever again
dare use the flag of our country to adver-
tise himself and his shoddy wares, while
daily it was made more sacred than ever,
baptized in the fire of battle and the life
blood of brave men. The thought, the
feeling that inspired the order was born
in the heart of a soldier, and the army
applauded it.
Well, now, the soldiers have not for
gotten that order, and to this day the
Grand Army hate to see the flag used as
an advertisement for dry goods, for
clans, for salt fist for tar, for gimlets,
for treacle, taffy, popularity, votes, or
anything else. No mans portrait has
any right ON the United States fiag-the
presidents, or the post suffers, or even
P. T. Barnum's. The flag was never
made for that purpose; it wasn't in
tended, when it was designed, to be
National picture gallery. And no man
who loves it, as do the men who marched
and fought and suffered under it, likes to
see it disfgured. They remember the
flag very distinctively as it was when
they carried it into battle, and President
Cleveland's picture wasn't painted on it
then; why, then, should it be there now?
1t is soldiery in the men of the Grand
Army to obey orders. Forever float
that standard sheet" but down with the
advertisements.
ROBERT J. BURDETTE.
BRYN MAwR, August 80.
SOME OF THE HISTORY OF 1885.
One of the gentlemen who has been
loading down the Democratic papers with
slush about Mr.. Powell and has been
abusing Governor Foraker and lauding
Powell to the skies is W. A. Taylor. This
correspondent, who is just now so busily
engaged in aiding Mr.. Powell and fur
thering the interests of John R. Mclean,
was in 1885 sending dispatches to the
New York World from Columbus. The
World is Democratic paper, and what
Mr.. Taylor then wrote for It can certainly
be received as reliable information by
Democrats.
1t will be remembered that in October,
1885, Mr.. Thomas E. Powell, present
Democratic candidate for governor, was
chairman of the DemoC ratio state eXecu-
tive committee, and in charge of the
Democratic headquarters at Columbus.
1t was at that time that the forgeries in
Cincinnati and Columbus, since notori-
GUS, were committed. The following YER
batim extract from Mr.. Taylor's special
to the New York World, dated October 10,
1885, may be Of interest at this time: 81
have Just received private advices from
Cincinnati to the effect that the entire
Republican delegation ITO the legisla-
turel ''except one is certainly elected, and
will be so declared tomorrow. There is
an ugly feeling in Cincinnati, and 1 am
advised that a riot may occur at any mo-
ment The Democratic state committee
yesterday made the claim of the legisla-
ture on iuint ballot upon telegram from
John Mclean that it should do so, as the
Democrats had certainly elected twenty
one senators and fifty-six representatives
Since then the committee has maintained
the claim put forth. 1t is but proper to
say, willis all the best Democrats in the
state sincerely hope that the party has an
honest majority of the legislature, Mr.
McLean's present attitude excite very
grave suspicion. He is in the city to-
night incognito in company with some
of his ieutenants, but has not conferred
with any of the real Democratic leaders,
By the real Democratic leaders are
meant such men as Allen G. Thurman
Mr.. Mclean was in conference with
Thomas E. Powell, and the result of the
conference and the claims spoken of by
Mr.. Taylor was apparent when few
days later the forgeries were discovered
in Cincinnati and Columbus
A Night In Constantinoples
The first thing that strikes one about Con-
stantinople is the quantity of windows The
houses seem nothing but window frames.
Where we should think a room we'll lighted